


Pile-Up

by simkhalou



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Fluff, Inappropriate Behavior, M/M, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 13:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5969289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simkhalou/pseuds/simkhalou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“The house got really crowded pretty fast, huh?”</em>
</p>
<p>It's Charlie's and Nahele's first Thanksgiving at Steve's and Danno's house and Grace is handling it just fine. Mostly, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pile-Up

**Author's Note:**

> Pointless holiday fluff - a few months too late.
> 
> Warnings: _"Mommy said a bad word and you didn't hear it."_ (some language)

When Grace woke up that morning, she found herself staring right at Charlie's face.

“Bzz bzz,” he sputtered and then disappeared from her field of vision.

Fantastic.

Groaning, Grace flopped onto her back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, rubbing at sleep-crusted and spit-covered eyes. As much as she enjoyed spending time with her dad and Steve, sharing a room with a four-year-old was absolute torture.

“Bzz bzz,” Charlie buzzed again, more urgently this time. “Gracie, bzz bzz.”

Something clattered onto the hardwood floor.

“Bzz bzz.”

Pushing herself up to sit, Grace glared down to where her brother was lying propped up on his stomach, legs dangling in the air. “What?” she demanded.

Charlie's fingers fished for something in front of him and only then Grace recognized the pink casing of her phone. “Hey, give me that!” she called out, scrambling out from under the covers before her brother could damage her most precious possession with his clumsy baby hands. “Charlie!”

“Bzz bzz,” he chirped again and — probably under the misguided impression that they were now playing some sort of stupid game of catch — sent the phone whirling and scraping across the floor. He giggled and pushed himself up on his hands and knees and crawled after it.

“Oh my god,” Grace groaned and snagged one of Charlie's legs to stop him.

He whined and squeaked, dropping to the floor again rolling and laughing.

Something in Grace's head went _naww_ at the sight but, damn it, she was going to murder the little shit if he had put so much as a scratch on her phone. She quickly picked it up from the floor before he could reach it.

The screen was intact, thank god. There was a message from Lucy, she was wishing Grace a happy Thanksgiving.

“Bzz bzz.”

Grace sighed and glared at her brother who was now busy climbing up into her bed. “Yeah, thanks for letting me know.”

Charlie flopped over and rolled onto his back. Grace shook her head at him and then focussed on her phone again. Just as she'd entered the passcode, the dull sound of laughter vibrated through the thin wall separating their room from Danno's and Steve's bedroom. Ignoring it, Grace started typing a reply to Lucy.

She paused when there was a muffled gasp, followed by a low moan, a breathless, “Danny,” and an insistent, “Shh!”

Charlie's head shot up from the bed.

Grace dropped hers with a sigh.

Danno and Steve were the absolute _worst_.

“Is Danno up?” Charlie inquired curiously.

Grace snorted. Yup, Danno was definitely up. There was no mistaking the noises he and Steve were making.

She shuddered and tried to block out everything coming out of the other room, because, ew, gross!

At the same time, though, it was soooo tempting, telling Charlie to go over there and check if Danno and Steve were awake and wait in here for all the hysterical screaming. It'd be hilarious. But Grace figured that having her brother scarred for life was probably not going to make things for her any easier. So she settled for rolling her eyes at the wall.

Seriously, someone should tell them they were never as quiet as they thought they were.

“Come on,” Grace said, louder than necessary. She stuck a hand out to her brother and shoved her phone into the pocket of her pajama pants. “Let's go downstairs and see if Nahele is awake, hm?”

Charlie pouted. “But I can hear them,” he said with a pout, big eyes rolling towards the wall separating the rooms. “What are they doing?” he then asked with a concentrated frown.

“I don't know, but you should definitely ask them later,” Grace snapped, then grabbed her brother's hand and manhandled him off the bed and across the room. She yanked the door open and was suddenly face to face with Aunt Mary with little Joanie in her arms as they came out of the other room. The guest bedroom. The one that used to be Steve's when he was a kid. Because Mary's old room was now Grace's. Like, permanently. Charlie was going to get Steve's old room one day… as soon as someone had some time to do the redecorating. It all totally made sense.

“Morning,” Aunt Mary said with a somewhat perplexed look on her face.

Grace smiled. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Right.”

Small but unmistakable noises from the third bedroom drifted into the hallway.

Mary's eyes widened comically before she pressed a flat palm against her daughters ear, shoving her head against her own chest to cover the second one. “Oh, my god, I'm gonna kill Steve,” she groaned, first- and secondhand embarrassment coloring her neck and cheeks.

Grace smirked. “Sounds like Danno's already doing that for you.”

“Steve, Danno!” Charlie squealed.

Mary stared at Grace, scandalized.

Grace shrugged, giving her Aunt a meaningful look. Because, hello, she wasn't a stupid kid anymore. She was almost just as tall as Mary, too. That should count for something. “An active sex life is a sign of a healthy relationship,” she stated seriously, maybe quoting from one of her mom's magazines.

Mary rolled her eyes. “Spoken like a child truly traumatized by divorce.”

Grace decided to let that slide and sighed exasperatedly. “It's weird that they can probably hear us and still think that we can't hear them, right?”

“I don't think they're doing much thinking right now,” Mary muttered under her breath before she started herding everyone towards the stairs.

Down in the living room, Nahele was still soundly asleep on the couch, with his face mushed into a pillow and one hand dangling on the floor. He usually slept in the guestroom when he stayed over (though he better got used to the couch fast. Grace wasn't going to share her room with Charlie much longer). But with Mary and Joanie here for the holiday, he'd had the choice between this and going back to the group home where he was living until he turned eighteen.

Room problems aside, Grace didn't really understand why Danno and Steve didn't just adopt him. Apparently, it was complicated.

God, she hated that word.

“Let's go to the kitchen,” Mary suggested in a quiet whisper and disappeared with her daughter.

Grace tip-toed over to the couch instead and flicked Nahele's upturned ear with a thumb and index finger.

He startled awake with a grunt, arms flailing wildly. “Wha—“

“Happy Thanksgiving,” Grace chirped.

“Happy Thanksgiving,” Charlie echoed.

Nahele blinked owlishly at them, hair sticking up in all kinds of different directions. Grace thought he looked sort of cute. Maybe adoption was a bad idea after all.

“What the hell?” he grumbled at her in a scratchy, hoarse voice.

“Your ear is all red,” Charlie observed and gurgled out a laugh. He squeezed by Grace and made grabby hands in front of Nahele's face. “Can I touch it?”

Nahele scowled at him with bleary eyes. “What's wrong with you people?” he muttered and slapped Charlie's hands gently away. Then he pulled his blanket up over his head and curled up on his side, facing the backrest.

Adoption. Preferably by a family from the mainland. Something far, far away.

Charlie seemed unimpressed by Nahele's rudeness. He carefully scaled the couch and then snuggled under the covers by his feet.

Nahele kicked his legs, mumbling something unintelligible into the cushions.

“Pshh,” Charlie hushed. Then he curled himself over Nahele's knees and poked a finger into his side. “Hele,” he asked quietly. “Hele, can I sleep here with you?”

Nahele grunted in response. Charlie contently snuggled into the crease between him and the backrest.

Rolling her eyes at the two, Grace pulled out her phone and continued typing her message to Lucy as she wandered into the kitchen. Aunt Mary was busy puttering around in there, collecting plates and cups and glasses for breakfast while Joanie was sitting in her Joanie-chair at the island, happily slurping orange juice from her sippy cup.

“Hey.”

Grace looked up and found Mary staring at her, a stack of napkins in her hands.

“We always just use paper towels,” Grace told her with a raised eyebrow. Charlie hadn't worn his raincoat-like whole-body bib in a long while, but eating was still far from a sanitary exercise with him. Using actual napkins seemed like a colossal waste.

“Right.” Mary opened a random drawer and shoved the stack inside. “So,” she then said, uncomfortably rubbing her palms over her thighs. She shot a quick glance at her daughter and then shifted her gaze up to the ceiling. “That was awkward, huh?”

Grace rolled her eyes and shrugged. “At least Danno should be in a good mood all day.”

“Seriously?” Mary frowned, unconvinced but with a small smile tugging at her lips.

“Oh yeah. He'll complain a lot less.” She turned to the shelf and grabbed a glass. Mary handed her the juice from the fridge. “Which is good, considering our plans for today.”

“What, your dad's not a fan of the zoo?”

“Hm,” Grace hummed, considering the question as she poured her juice. “He's not really a fan of being outside in general,” she qualified. “And of walking around without a destination.”

“Ha,” Mary exclaimed. “He sure as hell picked the right guy to date then.”

Joanie banged her plastic cup on the surface of the kitchen island in agreement.

“Hey, settle down, sweetie,” Mary scolded.

“I think Steve's good for Danno,” Grace said quietly, watching Mary drop a kiss to her daughter's fluffy white-blond hair. She knew her dad had had a hard time after he had been arrested for murder in her classroom. Something had been off about the way he'd been acting the weeks and months after he'd been back from Colombia. But things were better now and Grace was sure Steve had a lot to do with that.

“And your dad is good for Steve,” Mary said softly and then snorted out a laugh. “Seriously, though. If you'd told me five years ago that we'd be here today, with Steve and his freaking boyfriend and four kids, I would have called it the strangest acid trip I ever had and— Forget I said that, the acid thing.”

“Okay,” Grace said with a shrug but it got kind of drowned out by rumbling noises from upstairs.

“Jesus Christ,” Mary hissed and darted out of the kitchen and into the living room. “Steve! Seriously, I swear to god, whatever you're doing up there, now is not the time!” she shouted. “There are kids here! A lot of kids!”

“Dude, are you for real?” Nahele protested around a yawn.

“Dude, you for real?” Charlie parroted.

“Ugh,” Mary groaned. “Sorry, okay,” she apologized to Nahele. “But just— Get your lazy butt up, okay? Great.”

“Butt, you said butt,” Charlie giggled.

Mary came stomping back into the kitchen then. “Hey, are we sure that kid out there isn't some kind of clone of my brother the military cooked up in one of their labs? Because, wow, I'm getting crazy flashbacks here.”

“Pretty sure,” Grace said.

“It's too fucking early for all this— Shit.” Hands flailing, Mary clamped her mouth shut. “Mommy said a bad word and you didn't hear it,” she told Joanie.

“Mommy said two bad words,” Grace corrected helpfully.

Mommy glared at her. “I need coffee.”

“Hmhm,” Grace hummed in agreement. Jesus, Aunt Mary was not a morning person at all.

Footsteps suddenly started tumbling down the stairs. Half fast and bouncy, the other half slow and dragging.

“Steve, Danno!” Charlie squealed. “You're up! I knew it!”

Nahele huffed out a breath, then he coughed. “Watch it, kid.”

“Sorry,” Charlie muttered.

“Get off me.”

“Grrr, come here,” Steve growled.

Charlie howled excitedly.

“He is five years old,” Mary lamented from behind Grace, frantically dumping heaping spoonfuls of coffee into the machine with exaggerated force, sending little brown flecks flying all over the counter. Oh, Steve was gonna love that.

“He's four, actually,” Grace corrected.

“I was talking about my brother, not yours.”

“Oh.”

“Gooooooood morning,” Steve lilted as he came into the kitchen, dangling a giggling Charlie in front of him by the wrists.

“Hey, hey, careful,” Danno yelped from somewhere behind them. All Grace could see of her dad was a pair of flailing hands. Ugh, he was always sooo over-protective of Charlie, probably would keep him covered in bubble wrap if it wasn't for the choking hazard defeating the purpose of keeping him safe. Grace could understand the instinct, though, with the whole deadly disease-hospital-bone marrow transplant-thing still looming in their all too recent past. It had scared her, too, the idea of losing Charlie. Even though he probably was the most annoying little brother ever.

“Don't worry, babe, I got him,” Steve assured gently and practically catapulted Charlie up and over his head, sitting him on his shoulders.

He was rewarded with a slap on the arm from Danno. “I hate you,” he groused, hands reaching for Charlie, ready to catch should he fall. “Don't do that, you'll give him whiplash.”

“You two are the worst,” Mary grumbled, slamming the pot into the coffeemaker.

Steve rolled his eyes at his sister dramatically. “Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Mare.”

She glared at him dangerously. “Oh, I know what you're gonna be thankful for this year,” she said nastily.

“Christ, Mary,” Danno hissed, hands whirling, “my daughter is right there!”

“So is mine!”

“Yeah, but yours doesn't know what subtext is. Mine does!”

Okay, that was Grace's cue to leave.

“Yeah, and who's fault is that?” Mary accused as Grace squeezed by Joanie's chair and under Steve's arm and by Danno and out of the kitchen. It felt like coming up for air after being underwater for minutes.

“What?” Danno yelled.

“Hey, hey,” Steve soothed behind her, “everybody calm down, okay?!”

“Calm down!” Charlie echoed excitedly.

In the living room, Nahele seemed to be finally awake. He was standing next to the couch, trying to wrestle the blanket into a neat square.

Lost cause, Grace thought as she flopped down on the lounge chair next to him.

“Anyone bleeding in there?” Nahele asked with a tilt of his head in direction of the kitchen where the so-called adults were still talking loudly at each other.

Grace laughed at the comment and took 'get Nahele adopted by nice family from Alaska' off her mental to-do list again. He was kind of cute when he smiled. “Nah, not yet. But give them time,” Grace sighed. “Bet you regret staying here tonight now, huh?”

“Nah, man,” Nahele said, shaking his head. An adorable pink blush crept into his cheeks. “This is great.”

Grace snorted. “It's insane.”

“Maybe,” Nahele shrugged and sat down on the couch with the blanket in his lap. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “But I guess too much family is better than none, you know.”

“Right.” Grace sighed, not sure what to say to that. His mom was dead, his dead in prison and, apparently, there was no one else. No siblings or relatives who could take care of him. All this insanity was probably way better than living in the streets or even a stupid group home.

“Hey!” Steve called out. Half a second later, something small swished across the room. The set of car keys jingled as Nahele caught them easily with one hand. “Need you to head to the store, buy a carton of eggs. Someone dropped the one we had.”

“You dropped it, Steven!” Danno yelled from the kitchen.

Steve grimaced.

“I get to drive your truck?” Nahele beamed excitedly. “By myself?”

“I want pancakes!” Charlie screamed.

“Pancakes!” Joanie agreed.

Steve pointed a warning finger at Nahele. “There's money in the bowl by the door. Grab that so you don't have to sell any car parts to pay for the eggs.”

Grace snorted.

“On my way,” Nahele confirmed with a sloppy salute and then slipped on his flip flops. Steve disappeared back into the kitchen.

“Want some company?” Grace asked, even though she was still in her pajamas, but hey, so was Nahele.

He opened his mouth to answer but Danno was faster. “Grace, no!” he shouted. “I need you to help Steve set the table, because god knows, someone needs to make sure he doesn't drop anything else.”

Grace rolled her eyes.

“Put the child down, Steven!”

With a grin, a wink and a shaka sign, Nahele disappeared through the front door.

Definitely not Alaska, Grace thought. She fished her phone from her pants pocket and started typing another text to Lucy: _Would it be, like, super weird if I thought Nahele's cute?_ She added the see-no-evil monkey emoji and a blushing yellow smiley face.

Steve shuffled from the kitchen to the dining room, balancing a stack of plates with cups on top in his arms. Grace wondered how he'd managed to get by Danno carrying all that at once but then got distracted when her phone buzzed with a response from Lucy. _Isn't that the dude who sometimes kind of lives with you? Isn't he like 17? … not weird at all._ Winky face emoji.

“Blegh,” Grace groaned. _It's not like Steve and Danno r gonna to adopt him_ , she texted back.

“Grace, will you please get off your phone and help!”

How did Danno even know she was on her phone without seeing her?

Bzz bzz. _Steve, swoooooon._ Heart-eyes emoji.

_Luce, if u want us to stay friends u have to get over ur crush on my dad's boyfriend._

“Grace!”

“Coming!”

Bzz bzz. _The heart wants what the heart wants._

Grace shook her head at her phone and then stuffed it back into her pocket.

In the dining room, she was pleased to find that all the dishes were still intact. “I don't know what the rush is anyway,” she mumbled, putting a knife and a fork on each plate. “It's gonna be at least ten minutes before Nahele is back with the eggs.”

“You know Danno,” Steve simply said with a goofy grin and a fond eye roll.

Grace couldn't help but smile at the expression. God, poor Lucy. There was not a chance in hell for her.

“So, you excited for the zoo?” Steve then asked conversationally.

Grace stared at him. “Oh, yeah,” she deadpanned. “Charlie's gonna freak out because he's gonna want to see the elephants and nothing else. He's gonna be screaming and crying and then, once we get there, he's gonna be surprised all over again by how big they actually are. And then he's gonna be scared and scream and cry some more until he gets ice cream. And he's gonna get that all over me and my clothes. But yeah, I'm super excited.”

Steve considered her with a long look. “You know, you inherited some of your father's best qualities. But the sarcasm is not one of them.”

Grace wasn't impressed by the stupid comment. With a groan, she turned and headed through the double doors and outside to the lanai. This day sucked already.

“Hey,” Steve said softly from behind her. He sighed and then came over to stand next to her.

Grace didn't look at him, she stared stubbornly out into the ocean.

“You okay?”

“Perfect,” Grace bit out in response. She wasn't even sure where all the irritation came from. She had been looking forward to this extended weekend for a long time and now it was only Thursday and everyone was already being annoying.

“The house got really crowded pretty fast, huh?”

Frowning, Grace turned to look at Steve. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged and looked out to the water. “I'm just saying. Not too long ago, it was just you, Danno and I. And now there's Charlie, too. And Nahele spends a lot of time here with us and—“

“I'm not a baby,” Grace stated firmly. “It's not like I'm throwing a tantrum because I want more attention.”

“I didn't say that,” Steve said evenly and then sat down by her feet, on the step leading to the lawn. “Look, Grace, I spent a lot of time alone in this house. And I was pretty used to that. But then everything changed. And then everything kept changing and—“ He paused and looked up to her. “I'm just trying to keep up. But sometimes it can be pretty overwhelming.”

Grace looked down at him for a long moment. She wasn't sure why Steve was telling her all this. But in a way, she had to admit that, sometimes, she felt like that, too.

Heaving a sigh, she sat down next to him and rested her crossed arms on her drawn up knees. “I know what you mean,” she said quietly. “Things have changed for me a lot since Charlie got sick. I mean, Danno's suddenly his dad, too, and he started to spend a lot of time with him. It's not like I'm jealous… but Danno did spend a lot of time with Charlie when he was in the hospital. And after that, too. On our weekends. But, you know, I get it. They have to catch up.”

Hell, that sounded a lot like jealousy. And Grace kind of wanted to shut up then, because here she was, acting like a stupid cry-baby after all. But somehow, she just couldn't stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth.

“And it's not like I'm jealous of Nahele either. I mean, he lost his mom and his dad is in prison. He has literally no one. But— I don't know, I guess it was just bad timing that he stole your car right before I had that fitness medal thing, because then there was no reason for us to do anything together anymore and, you know, you and he had to fix your car anyway, so—“

“Hey, hey, hey,” Steve suddenly cut her off. “Hold up a moment.”

He sounded kind of pissed all of a sudden. Grace stared at him, wondering what part of the whole mess she'd just expelled could have made him angry.

“What do you mean, there was no reason for us to do anything together anymore?”

“I won the medal,” Grace reminded him, perplexed and maybe a little offended that he would forget. “Best in my age group.”

“I know you won the medal, Grace. I have a picture of you with it in my office.”

Oh?

“We're always doing stuff together,” Steve added. He sounded a little defiant. And very confused.

With a sigh, Grace rested her chin on her arms. “I know. I just thought it was nice when we had, you know, our thing. Just you and me.”

“Hmmm,” Steve hummed thoughtfully. “I thought it was nice, too,” he said after a beat and then bumped his shoulder into hers. “Maybe we can do something else. Start training for a marathon or something.”

Grace smiled. “I don't really like running,” she admitted, unashamed.

“What?” Steve complained. “You were good at it.”

Grace just shrugged.

Steve huffed out an unhappy breath. “All right, we'll find something else then,” he promised.

This time, Grace bumped her shoulder into him. Steve lifted his arm and wrapped it around her, holding her tight against his side for a moment. “I love you, Gracie,” he told her and dropped a kiss on her head. “And your dad loves you, too.”

“I know.”

Steve pulled away a little and looked at her seriously. “This thing with Charlie… it will balance itself out. Don't worry, okay. I'll make sure—“

“Sandcastle!” a tiny voice suddenly screamed from somewhere behind them. Then something fast and small dashed by and bounded towards the water.

“Charlie, no!” Danno yelled. “You know you're not allowed to— Charlie!”

“Sandcastle!”

Steve was up in a nanosecond, chasing after Danno who was chasing after Charlie — who probably thought, again, that all this was a fun game of catch.

“What the hell are they doing?” Mary asked from the door, carrying Joan in her arms.

“Depends on who you're asking, I guess,” Grace said and snorted when Steve crashed into Danno and they both ended up in a tangled heap on the ground.

“Pile-up!” Charlie screamed and jumped on top of them.

“Pieyup!” Joanie parroted and clapped her hands excitedly.

Grace and Mary exchanged a long look. Then they both grinned.

“I'm back,” Nahele said, sticking his head out the door. “What's going on?”

“Pile-up,” Mary and Grace said in unison.

Carrying Joanie, Mary started running across the lawn. Grace got up and grabbed Nahele's hand before she followed her aunt.

  
  


**The End**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Technically, this story is set in the same universe as my story Someday (because I wrote this to get a break from writing a sequel to that story and my brain is just not able to multitask in that way) but I think it can stand alone. Sorry if anyone got confused.


End file.
